Interdisciplinary post doc studying impacts of extreme heat

The University of Copenhagen (UCPH) invites candidates for an interdisciplinary post doc position studying impacts of extreme heat from 1 December 2026.

The position is for 2 years and is funded as part of the interdisciplinary UCPH Convergence Grant project “In the Heat of the Moment: Mapping the Extreme Heat Landscape.”

Introduction
The postdoctoral researcher will be based at the Department of Economics at the University of Copenhagen and will contribute to an interdisciplinary research project investigating the impacts of extreme heat and the institutional, economic, and legal responses to increasing heat risk.

Extreme heat is becoming a structural feature of climate risk worldwide, yet evidence on its impacts remains highly uneven across countries. This is particularly the case in the Global South, where limitations in climate, health, administrative, and socioeconomic data constrain both the measurement of heat-related impacts and the development of effective adaptation policies.

The project “In the Heat of the Moment: Mapping the Extreme Heat Landscape” brings together researchers from development economics, climate and environmental science, public health, data science, and law. The overarching ambition is to develop an integrated “burden-to-governance” framework connecting the measurement of extreme-heat exposure and its consequences for economic impacts, institutional responses, legal frameworks, and climate adaptation.

The post doc will play a central role in developing the quantitative empirical components of this interdisciplinary research agenda.

Duties and Responsibilities
The post doc will conduct independent and collaborative research on the socioeconomic consequences of extreme heat, with particular emphasis on developing-country settings.

Depending on the candidate's expertise and the availability of suitable data, research activities may include:

• Combining high-frequency measures of heat exposure derived from climate reanalysis, satellite, and/or meteorological data with household, administrative, health, demographic, or other socioeconomic data.
• Estimating the causal effects of extreme heat on economic and human-development outcomes, potentially including health, labour supply and productivity, household welfare, education, livelihoods, and other dimensions of socioeconomic vulnerability.
• Examining heterogeneous and distributional effects of heat exposure, including the identification of populations and socioeconomic groups particularly vulnerable to extreme heat.
• Investigating household, community, and institutional adaptation to extreme heat, including informal coping mechanisms and constraints on adaptive capacity.
• Contributing to the development of methods for quantifying the economic and social burden associated with extreme heat in settings where conventional impact data are incomplete or unavailable.
• Collaborating with researchers from climate science, public health, data science, law, and other social sciences to integrate economic evidence into the project's broader burden-to-governance framework.
• Contributing to the development of policy-relevant approaches for evaluating adaptation strategies and identifying interventions that can reduce the adverse and unequal consequences of extreme heat.
• Contributing to joint academic publications, interdisciplinary workshops, dissemination activities, and the development of follow-up research proposals.

A central feature of the position is close collaboration across disciplinary boundaries. The successful candidate will therefore be expected not only to undertake high-quality research within one research area, but also to engage actively with researchers using different methodological and conceptual approaches.

The postdoctoral researcher will have considerable scope to shape the specific research questions pursued within the project in collaboration with the project's investigators.

Your Competencies and Opportunities
Applicants must have obtained, or be close to completing, a PhD with a strong quantitative focus within the social sciences by the time of appointment. We particularly welcome applicants with strong quantitative research interests related to climate change and development.

The successful candidate is expected to have:

• Strong training in applied microeconometrics and causal inference.
• Experience working with large-scale household, administrative, spatial, or other micro-level datasets.
• Strong quantitative and programming skills.
• A demonstrated ability or strong potential to conduct independent research of high international quality.
• An interest in climate change, environmental shocks, socioeconomic vulnerability, and/or economic development.
• An interest in interdisciplinary research and an ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with researchers outside economics.

Experience in one or more of the following areas would be an advantage:

• Research on climate change, weather shocks, natural disasters, or environmental risks.
• Research using geospatial, remote-sensing, and/or climate data.
• Linking spatial measures of environmental exposure to household or administrative microdata.
• Research in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa.
• Analysis of health, demographic, labour-market, agricultural, or household-welfare outcomes.
• Research on adaptation, resilience, or the distributional consequences of climate change.

The position offers an opportunity to work at the intersection of development economics and a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary research agenda on climate change and extreme heat. The post doc will join an interdisciplinary team spanning several research environments at the University of Copenhagen and will have opportunities to develop new collaborations, contribute to novel datasets and methodologies, and participate in the development of a larger future research programme on extreme heat, vulnerability, and adaptation.

Strategy of the Faculty of the Social Sciences
The Department of Economics is part of the Faculty of the Social Sciences. The Faculty is a successful academic community that strives to put knowledge into action by:

• Engaging partners in the co-creation of knowledge, learning and social change.
• Empowering our students to become reflective and responsible citizens who have the vision, the knowledge and the competences to change society for the better.
• Energizing global, European and Danish communities of knowledge by innovating research methodologies and by research findings with impact

Terms of Employment

• Further information on qualification requirements as postdoc can be found in the Memorandum on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Danish Universities 2019 here: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/criteria-for-recognising-merit/dokumenter/Ministerial_Order_no._1443_of_11_December_2019_on_Job_Structure_for_Academic_Staff_at_Universities.pdf
• Terms of appointment and salary is in accordance with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (Akademikerne).
• The salary range starts at DKK 39,200 per month + a 18.07 % contribution to the pension scheme. It is possible to negotiate salary supplements on an annual basis.

The recruitment process
Further information on the recruitment process at University of Copenhagen can be found here:  https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

An Equal Opportunity Workplace
The University of Copenhagen is committed in its pursuit of academic excellence to equality of opportunity and to creating an inclusive working environment and therefore encourages all qualified candidates to apply, regardless of personal background, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity etc. For more on the diverse working place environment at the University and the University’s participation in the HRS4R HR Excellence in Research, see https://employment.ku.dk/working-at-ucph/eu-charter-for-researchers/

International applicant?
The University of Copenhagen offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including support before and during your relocation and career counselling to expat partners. Please find more information about these services as well as information on entering and working in Denmark here: https://ism.ku.dk.

Contact information
Information about the recruitment process is available from HR. Please refer to ID number: 211-2664/26-2I

Additional information about the position can be obtained from Professor John Rand, e-mail: john.rand@econ.ku.dk, phone +45 35 33 68 65

How to apply
Submit a complete application at our online portal. Click on the “Apply now” icon at the bottom of the page to apply. The documents must be in Adobe PDF or Word.

Your application must be written in English and include the following documents:

• • Motivated application (max 2 pages
  • Curriculum vitae
  • Diploma (master and bachelor + documentation of completed relevant PhD)

The closing date for applications is 23:59 CEST 15 October 2026.

Applications or enclosures received thereafter will not be considered.